Anacortes Planning Commission recommended Dec. 10 that the City Council approve the Port of Anacortes’ West Basin redevelopment framework development plan and a related shoreline substantial development permit, subject to conditions in the staff report. The recommendation passed by roll call vote with all voting commissioners in favor.

Grace Pollard, the city’s senior planner, told the commission the hearing is an open-record, pre-decision forum for two Type 4 applications: the framework development plan and a shoreline permit. Pollard said the shoreline review focuses on uses such as road work, utilities, parking facilities, fill and shore-related recreation and public access; the permit does not approve specific buildings but does allow grading of building pads for later development. “The elements of the Shoreline Master Program that were included in the staff report addressed the requirement of no net loss of ecological functions and values,” she said.

John Demos, executive director of the Port of Anacortes, described the framework as a mixed-use plan intended to reconnect the West Basin upland with the downtown and existing North Basin waterfront, improve pedestrian safety and preserve a heavy-haul route needed for maritime cargo. “One of the critical components…is to make sure that we maintain that heavy haul route,” Demos said, and he noted the proposal establishes design radiuses and a 50-foot heavy-haul segment to accommodate oversized truck movements.

Port and consultant presenters said the application was filed in July 2023 and cited a string of supporting actions: a 9th Street right-of-way vacation approved in July 2024; an interlocal agreement signed in June 2025 addressing property transactions; two August 2025 interlocal agreements specific to the event facility’s design and operation; and a planned city-council hearing on extinguishing remnant utility easements (scheduled for the council meeting the following Monday, Dec. 15) that the Port said is important to enable future building footprints.

During public comment, an Anacortes resident asked whether the temporary dog park on the site could remain until a developer is found. Demos responded that the Port does not intend to keep that waterfront parcel as a permanent dog park and said public-access waterfront amenities included in the framework and a planned event facility (which the Port estimated at about $8,000,000) and related redevelopment (Port’s contribution and surrounding redevelopment roughly $9,000,000 in today’s dollars) are intended to offset loss of the temporary amenity.

Commissioners pressed staff and the Port on building heights, traffic and utility capacity. Pollard said the shoreline-jurisdiction base height is 35 feet with a potential bonus to 50 feet in some commercial marine areas, but that multifamily residential bonuses would not apply within shoreline jurisdiction. On traffic, staff said the applicant provided a professional traffic-impact study and the city engineer reviewed level-of-service; city concurrency standards will apply and staff found no current condition that would drop adopted levels of service. On drainage, Pollard said the subject property is on fill and preliminary stormwater reports were reviewed and are flow-control exempt with outflow to Fidalgo Bay; sewer concurrency will be evaluated once specific uses are proposed.

Commissioner McCombs moved the recommendation to council with staff’s conditions and an amendment requiring the recorded final framework plan to include the proposal summary, SEPA reference, an expiration period and attached exhibits. The motion was seconded and passed by roll call (affirmative votes recorded from Commissioners McCombs, Ryan, Martin, Stoneman, Juratsky/Jokaratski and Currier). The commission’s recommendation now goes to the City Council for final action.

Next steps: city staff and the Port will coordinate on the recordation language and the scheduled council actions on related easement and interlocal items.